and big crowds, well, that also means big security concerns. tom sherwood is live for us along the national mall with the latest on all that. hey, tom. >> reporter: hey, aaron. the first thing, somebody just walked by and said why don't you take off that tie? so don't expect to see this tie in the 6:00 show. as usual, these days people coming down this weekend monday night for the fireworks will have some light security to go through to get on to the mall. but the big no-no of course is no alcohol. lots of people already here, and this holiday weekend has begun. ♪ >> reporter: the rhythm and blues tent was a featured attraction at the folk life festival which opened on the mall today. ♪ the beginning of the july 4th weekend which will climax with monday night's fireworks spectacular. >> we came to town with about 14,000 pounds of explosives packaged into more than 2500 deluxe aerial bombs with some of those containing as many as 30 individual munitions. >> reporter: and the good thing about this year's folk life festival, it's in the shade